A little bit of history
To begin with, whether Arcachonnaise or Médocaine, oysters have left traces since the Gallo-Roman era.
The best known is the Arcachon Cap Ferret® oyster, with the emblematic “Gravette”, a flat oyster cultivated since the XNUMXth century.e century. Decimated by bacteria in the 20s, it was replaced by the Portuguese oyster, which was itself replaced by the Japanese oyster to repopulate the oyster farms in the 70s.
The Médoc oyster, for its part, had disappeared from the landscape and was very recently reintroduced in Gironde by a handful of oyster farmers, irreducible enthusiasts of breeding in the marshes of the estuary. She has therefore become the new recruit on our plates.
Fine or special, let's try to see more clearly.
Oysters do not all bathe in the same bath.
Fines and specials pass directly from the oyster beds in the open sea, to the hamper without entering a clear. A clear is a shallow basin dug in the clay soil, in which the refining of the oysters takes place. Oysters that are not refined in the clear have a more iodized flavor.
Claire's specials and Claire's fines, as their names suggest, go through the refinement box. Clearly, that goes without saying!
The specials, more fleshy, rounder and more hollow, are selected for their regularity which announces a more pronounced volume and taste. You can even find “super specials de claire” with Medoc oysters, which imply more pronounced aromas.
Whether they are refined for a few months or not, the oysters have all spent most of their life in the open sea. thanks to their maturation with a long work of our oyster farmers.
To taste them
In the Médoc, in Margaux, at chef Grégory Coutanceau's restaurant at Château Marquis de Terme, chef Thibaud Guena particularly appreciates the fleshy side of Médoc oysters. He serves them with small meatballs for sausages with herbs, crépinette style or completely transformed into appetizers, sorbet style. This funny Médoc oyster sorbet is obtained “with lemon juice and a little white wine”, exclusively reveals Thibaud. “I serve it in a quenelle with a crushed glasswort”. At the Marquis de Terme, Médoc oysters pair with a white wine from Château Dauzac. The notes of white flowers and exotic fruits of “D DE DAUZAC“ agree deliciously with the iodized notes.
On the Bassin d'Arcachon it is often a glass of Blanc d'Entre-deux-Mers that accompanies our dear and tender.
Traditions and Terroirs
Called “traditional oysters”, Arcachon Cap Ferret® oysters are defined by the 4 aquatic environments that saw them grow.
- The parks “Banc d’Arguin oysters” mark the entrance to the Bassin d'Arcachon. The oysters, bathed by the ocean, are distinguished by their melting and unctuous texture and their smell of seaweed.
- The “Ile aux Oiseaux and Mapouchet oysters” positioned in the heart of the Bassin d'Arcachon, take advantage of the waters of the Leyre which give the oysters mineral and grilled nut smells by giving them a firm and crunchy texture.
- The “Grand Bank Oysters” offer a mixture of both iodine and citrus fruits with a fruity, fine and creamy oyster.
- The parks of “Cap Ferret oysters” benefit from the strong currents at the end of the peninsula which sweep the oysters and provide them with the smell of sea spray with an iodized taste and an elastic and thick texture.
As to “Medoc oysters”, they bloom between 3 and 6 months on sorts of small rafts in the canals at the edge of the Gironde estuary. Each channel, it is said, develops particular aromas. The iodized flavors are softened by the river water. A specificity at La Petite Canaux, in Saint-Vivien-du-Médoc: the oysters share their habitat with their friends the prawns. The latter delight in the parasites of the oysters and scrape the ground of the clear ones preventing any proliferation of algae. Our molluscs, completely dumbfounded on their rafts, swallow the plankton floating on the surface, thus acting as a filter. A virtuous and not so silly cohabitation that gives Médoc oysters a unique flavor in addition to their particularly fleshy texture.